Miuccia Prada
November 30th 2006 15:31
Her grandfather had founded a small luxury leather goods company in Milan in 1913 and, persuaded by the family, Miuccia assumed the reins in 1978. She was a reluctant and unlikely successor: having completed a PhD in Political Science, she had been a champion of women's rights in the 1970s, a paid-up member of the Communist party and mime performer for six years at Milan's Teatro Piccolo.
But she proved her worth. In 1985, she designed a breakthrough line of hard-wearing black nylon bags. Determinedly utilitarian and chic, they became must-have accessories for the fashion cognoscenti, and the small triangular badge was as sought-after as any other luxury label’s branding.
The understated bags and the plain austere lines of her first eponymous ready-to-wear collection, launched in 1989, provided an antidote to the excess and overt sexiness of other labels of the era, particularly Italian ones. In 1992, Prada debuted the younger, less expensive bridge line Miu Miu (Miuccia's nickname), inspired by her own wardrobe of earthy hippyish garments with playful prints in natural fabrics and colours.
Prada is known for fine materials, exquisite craftsmanship and a distinct intelligent-sexy, frumpy-cool, librarian-chic sentiment. She has a long fascination with uniforms and has reinvented things like the pleated knee-length skirt, the belted cardigan, ribbed knee-high socks and other ‘sensible’ pieces, recurrently.
For me the most outstanding thing about Miuccia as a designer is her skills as a colorist. Every collection offers exquisite unexpected pallets that have the power to induce this lux-brand-resisting blogger into a state of credit card hypnosis.
Kim Basinger and Camilla Belle for Miu Miu
Miuccia is far from dowdy but isn’t overwhelmingly chic, doesn’t wear make-up and hates the fashion social scene - providing an interesting contrast to other Italian fashion icons, not to mention any names, Donatella Versace. When asked about selecting models Ms Prada answered “ I don't enjoy it. I hate the idea of judging a human being in that way, I find it very embarrassing." And asked whether she wears clothes by other designers she said “only if they are dead or poor.”
An avid art collector, Miuccia believes fashion can be art if it is approached by an artist as an artist, “but a fashion designer creating a collection is not art as such. It has artistic elements, of course, but the process is different."
The Prada flagship stores around the world reflect Miuccia’s interests in contemporary architecture, technology and arts. The Tokyo “epicenter concept store” store, pictured, was designed by Herzog and de Meuron. Glass crystal crisscrossed with lattice, the walls provide a perfect canvas for entrancing lightshows viewed from the street in the evening. The one in downtown New York, designed by “difficult” Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, cost US$40 million and has transparent glass changing room doors that turn opaque at the push of a button.
Miuccia met her future husband, Patrizio Bertelli, around the time she had taken over the family business, which was still based in a single shop in Milan. "If I hadn't met him, I probably would have given up - or at least not been able to do what I have done," she once said. Under his influence the design house made moves towards becoming the international conglomerate it now is, adding labels such as Fendi, Helmut Lang, Jil Sander and Azzedine Alaia to its portfolio of brands.
Recently voted one of the 30 Most Powerful Women in Europe by Wall Street Journal, Miuccia still lives at the same Milan apartment she was born in – admittedly it has been extended somewhat.
“I have many more interests than fashion,” she says, “fashion is just my job.” While she has commented that it “should stay in its place and not rule your life," she is aware that it is impossible to exist outside culture and people who claim they don’t care about clothes still make choices on personal expression and get dressed every morning:
“If they are going to reject fashion, they still need clothes to show it. Style rebellion is still a form of self-expression.”
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